Sunday, September 8, 2013

UNRWA and Palestinian Hatred

UNRWA and Palestinian Hatred

We in the West think about child abuse in terms of physical and sexual brutality. In all totalitarian societies, however, child abuse also takes the form of intense psychological manipulation.And no better example can be found than this recent You Tube showing how Palestinian children are being taught to hate Israel in United Nations funded camps.On August 16, 2013, the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority signed a new $148 million economic aid agreement. The money is used for the PA schools "many of which function in United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facilities."UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was created in 1949 to help individuals (along with their spouses and dependents) whose homes were in Palestine from June 1, 1946 to May 15, 1948 and who lost both their homes and their livelihoods as a result of the attack on the newly formed country of Israel. It is, in reality, one large welfare and terrorist training program in perpetuity. UNRWA has been a hotbed for radical ideas, terrorist training, and anti-American and anti-Semitic ideology for 64 years. No other refugee group in the world has had a single U.N. agency devoted just for them. Yet world leaders continue to prop up this agency which infantilizes Palestinians and holds the world hostage to terrorist activities. According to Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon, as of 2013 "the UNRWA is responsible for the education of some 485,000 Palestinian children throughout the Middle East."Over the years, many authors have tried to shed light on the nefarious deeds of the UNRWA. In August 2006 Justus Reid Wiener and Noam Weissman stated that the

UNRWA educational institutions are controlled by individuals committed to Hamas ideology and they are educating terrorists. Numerous terrorist operatives and Hamas political leaders have been educated in UNRWA schools.

In January of 2009, James G. Lindsay, a former general counsel of UNRWA, analyzed the agency's relationship with the United States, evaluated recent criticism of its operations, and recommended policies for the U.S. government. Mr. Lindsay actually worked at the UNRWA as a senior lawyer from August 2000 to August 2006, and again from March to August 2007. Beginning in December 2002, he served as the agency's chief lawyer and legal advisor. In early 2005, he was promoted to the UN international civil service's highest individual rank. Thus, he was in a uniquely advantageous position to become familiar with UNRWA operations and policies. In his report, he writes that

No justification exists for millions of dollars in humanitarian aid going to those who can afford to pay for UNRWA services. In addition, UNRWA should make the following operational changes: halt its one-sided political statements and limit itself to comments on humanitarian issues; take additional steps to ensure the agency is not employing or providing benefits to terrorists and criminals; and allow the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), or some other neutral entity, to provide balanced and discrimination-free textbooks for UNRWA schools.

According to the Department of Palestinian Affairs, the majority of Palestinian refugees in Jordan hold Jordanian citizenship, and fall under the umbrella and control of both UNRWA and DPA. Thus, as Lindsay writes, it is utterly absurd to have refugees in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Yet, these Palestinians are considered "citizen refugees" in countries where they have settled and made lives for themselves. It is an "oxymoronic status" that defies the imagination; yet, it receives the sanction of the world. Recall also, that Gaza is now its own independent entity. The Palestinians have their own state -- they even had elections. So what legitimate refugee status can they claim at this time?For more than a quarter of a century, the United Nations has "extended fake mercy to Palestinians at the expense of Jews" and the world at large. The persistence of these refugee camps testifies to the world's failure to integrate people and make their lives meaningful. Thus, the end result has been a creation of vast slums and terrorist training camps where hatred consumes generations of human beings.On the recent video, we hear children proudly stating that "Palestinians will shoot Jews" and they will say "no to [peace] negotiations." With engaging smiles these children raise their hands as the teacher prods them to exalt any family members who were suicide bombers!In mid August 2013, Dr. Fares Haider, reportedly the dean of education at UNRWA recently posted a picture of Hitler saluting, along with a quotation from the Nazi leader. Ann Dismorr, the head of UNRWA's Lebanon bureau, was "caught posing for a picture next to a 'map that erases the State of Israel and presents all of it as Palestine.'"The UNRWA is run entirely on international handouts. In fact, the UN ranks it among the top per capita aid recipients on the planet. According to Claudia Rosett, although the UNRWA had a temporary, three-year mandate to provide jobs for Palestinian refugees, it is still in operation more than a half century later. No honest, genuine efforts were ever made to resettle the displaced people and to help them regain productive lives. There is no humanitarian backdrop to the UNRWA any longer. It is quite simply a well-funded group who seeks to terrorize those countries who actually give it enormous financial backing. Thus, from the 900,000 original refugees listed by UNRWA in 1950, the agency now provides for a Palestinian "refugee" clientele of close to 5 million people. This is a staggering revelation of the world's self-serving desire to use Palestinians as its pawns. It also speaks to the Palestinianian lack of initiative to better the lives of their children.Note that in 1948 nearly one million Jews lived in Arab lands. Having lived in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen for thousands of years, these Jews were driven out of Arab countries and had their homes and bank accounts stolen by Arab governments. No special refugee agency was ever established to help the Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Israel simply integrated these people into the country and they now lead productive lives. The story about the expulsion and flight of a million Sephardic Jews is illuminated in the film entitled "Silent Exodus". It remained a hidden part of history for many years.For the period 2007-2010 the European Commission provided 264 million euros to the UNRWA's General Fund. Coupled with financial support from individual EU Member States, it represented more than half of UNRWA's total budget in 2008. The money goes to pay the salaries of UNRWA's teachers, doctors, and social workers. It also provides food aid and cash subsidies to the poorest refugees. In 2000, the amount was 83.76 million euros; in 2004 the contributions were 103.27 million euros; and in 2007 the number was 102.40 million euros.This report of the "Programme Budget 2012-2013" of the UNRWA shows the ever-increasing financial assistance the UNRWA receives under the disingenuous report title of "Peace Starts Here." Thus, in 2013, nearly 6,000 Palestine children were able to participate in the EU-UNRWA Summer Fund Days even though "financial support to UNRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by growing numbers of registered refugees" resulting in a deficit which stands at $65 million dollars!So from a temporary emergency relief agency, the UNRWA has now become "an entrenched, permanent, overstaffed, affluent bureaucracy." Moreover, Peter Hansen, UNRWA's former Commissioner-General (1996-2005) caused a controversy in Canada in October 2004 when he said in an interview that

Oh, I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another.

This is Hamas in their own words.In March of 2009, U.S. Representative Steve Rothman introduced a resolution (H Con 29) calling on UNRWA to improve its transparency by publishing online copies of all educational materials used in UNRWA-administered schools. But secrecy is standard policy at UNRWA, whcih does not permit outside independent audits of its books. Since 1950 the U.S. has contributed more than $3.4 billion to UNRWA and there has been no public accounting of its activities. In 2009, Joel Mowbray wrote that the "State Department still cannot ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are not subsidizing terrorists or underwriting terrorist propaganda in schools across the West Bank and Gaza." And yet, the Herculean efforts of MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch clearly show that terrorist propaganda is rampant.Instead of ending financial assistance until there is genuine accountability, Barack Hussein Obama is now "funding $313 million in home mortgages for Palestinians living on the West Bank" and "will also guarantee $110 million in loans to small and medium sized West Bank businesses." The money keeps flowing from this administration to terrorist organizations as Obama, yet again, rides roughshod over Congressional freezing over funding in the aftermath of the PA's attempt to unilaterally declare statehood via the United Nations.For years the Investor's Business Daily editorial staff has queried why the U.S. should be supporting a regime that in 2010 "fired 370 lethal rockets into Israel, that still refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and that has made a cottage industry of teaching children to hate."Furthermore, "[i]n testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on September 14, 2011, Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies proposed that "'Congress should challenge the corrupt system created by Mahmoud Abbas. This includes... stricter oversight of the presidential waiver process that releases Palestinian funds each year [as well as] oversight of the Palestine Investment Fund, including a full audit.'" In addition, Congress should "demand an immediate resolution to the matter of the electric power plant in Gaza [as] U.S. taxpayers should not be [indirectly] financing Hamas."And yet the money keeps flowing. In this report of January 2013, author Jim Zanotti, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, cites Chairman Ros-Lehtinen's concerns that "the [Obama] administration ...says we need to help rebuild the Palestinian economy, this at a time when our economy is facing serious challenges, and Americans are suffering."Why is the world like a delinquent parent who never holds people accountable for their actions? Why do we continue to allow this administration to fund the UNWRA and the indoctrination of children to hate Israel and the United States? Why do we permit child abuse in the Arab world?Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com